Bloomland by John Englehardt
Bloomland by John Englehardt
"Englehardt's stunning debut is not for the faint of heart; within the first few pages, a shooting occurs in the library of a fictional Southern college.But the story is less about this horrific event than it is about the period leading up to it, and what happens to three different people—a student, a professor, and the killer himself—in the aftermath. In prose that is vivid, specific , and wildly original, Englehardt shows how grief, disillusionment and, in some cases, resilience take his characters' lives in surprising directions. This is so good. "
- Recommended by Erika
Bloomland opens during finals week at a fictional southern university, when a student walks into the library with his roommate's semi-automatic rifle and opens fire. When he stops shooting, twelve people are dead.
In this richly textured debut, John Englehardt explores how the origin and aftermath of the shooting impacts the lives of three characters: a disillusioned student, a grieving professor, and a young man whose valuation of fear and disconnection funnels him into the role of the aggressor. As the community wrestles with the fallout, Bloomland interrogates social and cultural dysfunction in a nation where mass violence has become all too familiar.